AUBURN — Counseling students at Auburn University enrolled in required courses within the program have been exposed to radical and divisive ideologies through course content and assignments with an ingrained bent towards notions of “institutional and structural racism."
The course, Coun 2000, titled “Living and Communicating in a Diverse Society,” is described as a “class developing cultural competence in context of relationships, issues, and trends in a multicultural and diverse society related to such factors as culture, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, and mental and physical abilities/disabilities."
A student, wishing to remain anonymous, shared course material with 1819 News and noted that, according to the instructor, the material on intersectionality and critical race theory is required by Auburn University's curriculum and was not left to the instructor's discretion.
“No matter what module we were in, whether it was on racism, feminism, transgenderism, ageism, it always shined a negative light on white males,” the student said.
During the course, students were expected to complete different assignments depending on whether they were white or a person of color. In the exercise, the assignment goes through stages of lived experience, framing the white perspective as inherently oppressive or dismissive towards non-white individuals. Additionally, content in the class refers to the concept of reverse-discrimination as a contrived concept, created so that white people can avoid confrontations with actual racism.
Comparatively, the same assignment and complementary course materials framed the experience for non-white individuals as one of inherent victimhood, whereas then possibility of reverse racism is nonexistent due to “structural and institutional” racism. The student went on to note that after the class viewed a video on institutional and structural racism during class, the instructor became “very angry and upset” when the student noted that, while racism still exists, there is no systematic component.
While substantial progress has been made on rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on college campuses across the state following the passage of Senate Bill 129 in 2024, which required the closure of DEI offices within state universities and prohibited the teaching of concepts “[t]hat, by virtue of an individual's race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin, the individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously or That any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.”
See course material below:
Clay Newsome is a graduate student at Auburn.
Have a tip about a woke professor or policy at your campus? Collegiate students across the state are encouraged to report any tips about anti-DEI policies being violated in class or by administration and can do so by calling 1819 News at 334-313-6201 or by emailing [email protected].
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